San Nicholas Island, CaliforniaApril 1954

On April 22, 1954, at around 2:30 p.m., a Navy serviceman named James B. Stephens Jr. was riding in a carryall vehicle on San Nicolas Island, California, when he spotted something unusual on the road ahead. He saw a cigar-shaped object, gray in color, about 4 to 6 feet long. The object was traveling just above the ground at what Stephens described as appreciable speed, moving in a direction that would cross the road in front of the vehicle.

Almost immediately after Stephens spotted it, the object hit the ground in a semi-flat attitude. A cloud of dust or smoke erupted from the point of impact. After the collision, the object disappeared from view. The driver, Bernard G. Klein Jr., initially said he had not seen the object, but Stephens convinced him to stop and search the area anyway. The two men looked for roughly twenty minutes but found nothing.

Stephens and Klein reported the incident to their commanding officer, Lieutenant W. S. Cates. Cates took the sighting seriously. He conducted an intensive search of the area on April 22 and continued searching on April 23, 24, and 25 with no results. Cates also checked with underground radar to confirm whether any aircraft had been near San Nicolas Island at the time of the sighting. The radar check confirmed that no aircraft were in the vicinity. Additionally, on April 25, a man from the Nalcaye School at Naval Air Station Point Lagu brought specialized equipment to the area to test for possible radioactive residue, but found none.

The Air Force received official statements from all three men in June 1954 and classified the case as unidentified. The full case file, comprising seven pages as held by the National Archives, is reproduced below.